Singer and song writer Katy Perry says being raised in a strict Christian family didn’t stop her from being curious about sexuality and exploring her own.
Perry spoke about her conflicted childhood while accepting the National Equality Award at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) gala earlier this month. HRC is the largest civil rights advocacy group in the US and focuses on protecting the rights of the LGBTQI community as well as lobbying politicians for change.
She talked about writing the song I Kissed a Girl saying “truth be told, I did more than that”.
The equal rights advocate’s parents are born-again Christians and her father is a Pentecostal pastor. Perry and her siblings grew up attending church regularly and attending bible camps and moving all around the country while her parents set up new churches.
“When I was growing up homosexuality was synonymous with the word abomination and hell,” she said, E! reports.
“So most of my unconscious adolescence I prayed the gay away at my Jesus camps,” she said.
But it was in the middle of it all she said she found her “gift” which was her talent for writing and singing music.
VIDEO: @HRC honors Katy Perry with the National Equality Award at the #HRCLADinner. Watch her speech here: pic.twitter.com/lzfwDcFQnt
— Katy Perry Lately! (@katyperrylately) March 19, 2017